You picked a bad time to get started, this is the time of year most people decide they want a pool :-) "Huskyridor" (Kelly) is a frequent poster here and he is with Platinum Pools, you might try contacting him directly and see if he can put you in touch with someone that will respond quicker.

Kelly is with Atlantis. He's building our pool. I know they're busy. They were supposed to dig my pool on Monday, but we're being told it might be Tuesday now.

Just call them and leave a message. The designer is always very, very good at getting back to me.

Are you financing your pool? The reason I ask, is $4k isn't going to make much of a difference in your payments. If that's all that's stopping you, enter the figures into a loan calculator and see if it's worth it to go a little over.

Oh, and pool prices have gone WAY up here. We had Atlantis come out and bid for us in 2006 with a spa. We decided to wait, and now the same pool, minus the spa is still a few thousand more.

I was shocked by the sticker prices!

My husband wanted to stick below $30k, and we ended up spending close to $40k, and my pool is going to be very small.

smbnobles:

Thanks! We plan to put over 1/2 down and finance the rest. We do not want to exceed $28K without a spa. We don't want anything fancy just a simple pool for our kids to enjoy. We began our search in early March and have not been successful. The closest we came to making a final deal was with the "The Pool Man" which we really liked but was not in our budget.... Anyway hopefully we can come to a conclusion soon.

Yvonne

firsttimepool,
I know your frustration. We researched all summer before finding a PB we were comfortable with. So many just came out once and others didn't even return our call. I'm not in your area so I can't recommend my pool builder (Hilltop Pools did ours, in Georgia). We were very happy with them. I can tell you to stick with it. Keep calling, it is so worth it in the end. I can say that Kelly is very helpful on this site. He seems open, honest, and knowledgable about the whole process. I'd say to definately give him an opportunity since he is in your area. Be sure to keep us posted...

Don't go into the mode of settling for a PB just to have a pool. Building a pool is like buying a house. Take your time. Don't get edgy. Its a huge commitment. If you need too, take a month off, and start all over. But this time, talk to other Pool Owners and go off their recommendation. Stay away from the BBB. Waste of time. Get actual homeowners who are happy. And watch out for PB's who give you "their" list. Make sure their list is current. Not a two year old list. Make them give you current pool owners who are either complete or in the process of building. If they don't give you this list, then go on to another PB. I have found that PB's want to give you a santize list and not current pools under construction. If they are worth their salt in pool building they will have no qualms about giving you current owners who can give you a true feedback.

Thanks for the correction Smbnobles, I had Kelly's web site up when I was typing my post and STILL managed to type the wrong company name 8^O And I can't edit it now. I'll go write "Atlantis Pool" on the chalkboard 100 times now :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.atlantispool.com/

Kelly is currently building our pool and so far it's been nothing short of excellent customer service. He aims to please, knows his stuff, and is a hands-on type of guy. We feel fortunate that we chose this pool company as we've heard too many horror stories. The design staff is quick to return phone calls and has been extremely helpful.

Thank you guys for the vote of confidence!!!

I can completely understand where Firsttime is coming from. My industry is riddled with Johhnycomelately pool companies who have no idea about the actual construction job at hand. They utilize subs for every aspect and depend on them for decision making, they just figured out that this is an easy business to set yourself up in with a minimum of invested capital getting the company started.
It doesn't make them bad businessmen, just new and naive.
I can assure you that there are some awesome builders in your area that I've known 20 plus years. The Pool Man is one of them. When you research pools in the greater Houston area there are hundreds to choose from and a first time buyer or a newcomer to the area has no idea of who's been out here in business under the same name for a long time and who just opened shop. One common denominator of the longterm businessmen is that they're not the lowest price, overhead dictates that you must achieve a little more markup than the newbies who have nothing more than a pickup truck and a cell phone note as their overhead.
Currently I have several jobs in the Tomball area and would be happy to send you a designer to sit down and talk a little turkey. My shop is just northeast of you off of FM 2978 and FM 1488.

See ya,
Kelly

WOW, after just rereading your thread it looks like you called us and nobody came out or responded yet. If this is so I apologize or perhaps you got a company with a name twist. There are actually 3 companies now with a tweak of the name. Because we're in different counties the names were accepted as DBA's by the county registrars office.
I'm hoping that you might have spoken with one of them or that an agent of mine was just slow drawing a pool and getting it to me to bid. I'm usually the slow link in our chain, only I quote the prices on pool drawings and I have 7 sitting here tonight as I just got home at 1:00am from 16 hour day in the field. God bless those folks who let us work until 11:30 pm so we can finish the particular job we're on.

I should have really started bidding these pools while my dinner was microwaving instead of sitting here stuffing my face and interacting in this forum.

See ya,
Kelly

Huskyrider:

I certainly appreciate your committment to post on this board, I have learned so much from all of your feedback. So many questions have been answered. Since we are potential first-time pool folks, we had lots of questions that this site have answered. So thanks for staying up late to help "newcomers" like us! With all the postings here on the site, I am assured that you take pride in your great product and customer service.

Firsttimepool

tresw, make sure you write that out to where I can read it, or I'm going to make you rewrite it 100 more times. :-)

browneze, so *you're* the reason my pool isn't getting dug on Monday.

Just teasing! We're in frantic mode here right now, trying to get ready for Monday, so an extra day won't kill us, that's for sure. (Kelly, in case you're reading that, we still want you here on Monday... lol)

Firsttimepool, we did add a lot of extras to our pool, that escalated the price. We added PebbleTec, a lot of decking, a lot of flagstone, and a stacked stone wall. I'm sure if all of that was removed, we'd be closer to the $30k mark. I know it can be done.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for sending those encouraging words! We sure did need it! Thanks Kelly, for giving us some hope in finding a good reliable PB. We are getting excited again! I will keep you all posted on our progress!

Quote: "tresw, make sure you write that out to where I can read it, or I'm going to make you rewrite it 100 more times."

[deja vu] Wait a minute, are you Mrs. Cravitz from the 3rd grade? If so, I still assure you I did not shoot that spitball! :-)

Firsttimepool, good luck and keep us posted on your progress! Hopefully you'll have a big ol' hole in the ground soon!

Hey its not so bad, all too often I wish we never found our pool builder!

We went with South Shore Pools, the guy's name is Mike, his website is www.got2swim.com, check him out. He dug our pool on March 31st and finished this week, just under 4 weeks, process went great. It took longer for my HOA to approve it than it did for him to build, plus he was cheaper than other big builders. I am actually sitting out on my deck right now enjoying a cup of coffee next to the pool. Good luck and keep your head up. Shawn

Thank you Shawn! We have not given up our dream yet! We are taking our time and I will keep you posted once we settle on a PB!

Here is a link to a company that really helped my family find the perfect builder. It really took the stress factor out of the deal and brought it back to the fun exciting thing that it was suppose to be.

www.allpoolbids.com

Howdy,

I see on this thread that Kelly is building several of your pools right now. And he does an "awesome!" job. Our pool was finished in June '06 and we love it.
{{!gwi}}

However, as a word of advise, make sure he finishes EVERYTHING before giving him the final check. This is our firepit 2 years later. The last $400 profit is not worth his time when he can make thousands off the next build.

interesting. Let's see if Kelly reappears.....

WOW! Hopefully things can get straightened out!

He's building my pool right now. We've had no issues. Sorry your firepit has been left unfinished. :-(